Daily Prophets
Day 60
“All you who live in the world and inhabit the earth, when a flag is raised in the hills, take note! When the shofar is blown, Listen! In that time an offering shall be brought to God, Lord of Hosts, a people far and remote, from a a people thrust forth and away…At the place where the name of the God, Lord of Hosts, abides, at Mount Zion.”(Isaiah 18:3, 7).
Isaiah is speaking to the entire world here instead of a single country. He is not singling out only Judah or Israel, Moab or Assyria; rather he is speaking to all of us. “Kol Yoshvei Tevel All the dwellers of the world,” is very exact and specific.
The flag has been, is, and will be raised in the hills, we see the beauty of the hills and mountains each and every day. We see the sun hit the mountains and the wondrous sight of colors could be one of the flags Isaiah is speaking about. Yet, do we see the flag, the call of God in our hills and mountains?
We hear a lot of noise in our daily living, yet are we attuning our ears to the sound of the shofar that is blaring all the time? The word for “Listen” could also mean hear and understand. Isaiah is calling us to unclog our ears, and Shema-hear, listen and understand the call of the shofar, stop listening to the noise in our heads and hear with our soul/higher conscience.
The “offering” that will be brought, I believe is ourselves. When we realize that we have to be the offering that God is desiring and the prophet is calling for, then we are “in that time”. When we make this decision to heed the call and notice the flag, we will be able to experience God as the Israelites did at Sinai. Mount Zion will be seen from wherever we are at and we will fulfill the words of Isaiah.
Rabbi Heschel teaches us that Isaiah, as well as all prophets “may be regarded as the first universal man in history; he is concerned with, and addresses himself, to all men.”(The Prophets, pg. 169). He is teaching us that no one religion can claim the prophets as theirs, rather all of us need to heed and claim the prophets. Just as God is God of “all the dwellers of the world”; so too, as I understand Rabbi Heschel today, are the prophets for all of us. Yet, as he stated many times, we don’t study the prophets, we don’t learn the prophets, which I now understand makes all of us keep repeating the errors that the prophets speak to us about.
Our politicians definitely don’t hear the call nor see the flag. Hearing Senator Ron Johnson’s racist, hateful comments about the Jan. 6 Insurrection was disgusting. Not hearing any of his Republican colleagues denounce his comments is revolting. How can any of these people who are trying to stop people from voting, supporting white supremacists, denying the rights of people of color, supporting people who are Anti-Semitic, Anti-Muslim, etc call themselves “people of God and people of faith”? It is time for people of faith to stop having these charlatans co-opt faith, God and Holiness. We, the People, need to make God’s call and signs heard in Statehouses and Washington DC loudly and clearly. This is our best offering to God and to God’s creations.
In recovery, we know that we have been blessed to hear the Call of the Shofar, the call of God. While we missed both the calls and the signs for many years, when we finally heard it and saw it, we acknowledged our powerlessness and our need to surrender to God. We do this each and everyday, at our meetings, in our prayers and in our actions. It is not that we are perfect, far from perfection, it is that we are constantly evaluating our actions and when wrong, we are responsible and we correct the error and repair the damage. We are constantly bringing an offering to God by being of service to others, by staying out of judgmental thinking and by improving our conscious contact with God each day. We have been “a people far and remote, a people of gibber and chatter” as Isaiah says in verse 18:7, we know what it is like to be so separate from God that we destroy everything in our path and almost destroy ourselves and those we love. In recovery, the call and the sign are what we search for and see every day so we can improve our spiritual condition and grow closer to God and another(s).
I have not always heard the call and seen the signs in my recovery. I am seeing the places I have misread the signs, processed the call erroneously and I am saddened by these mistakes. I realize that God’s call never involves failure or abuse, rather the topic is always how I can improve and God knows that I can be one grain of sand better each day. God’s call has come through others as well as through me and I am sorry to the people who have delivered the message as Isaiah delivers the message and I was too thick-headed to hear. I am sorry to God for not hearing and listening and causing pain and anguish to God’s creations and those that love me. Today’s reading reminds me that I can clean out my ears and hear anew. Clear the shmutz from my glasses and eyes and see clearer. This is my commitment and my goal. What calls and signs are you responding to today? Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark